A long established practice in the parachute art is the use of a detachable connector link to attach the suspension lines to a personnel parachute riser loop, or to an aircraft in the case of a drag chute. The body portion of the conventional link connector is of an elongated U-shaped construction, and has a removal end closure member secured to the arms of the body by a pair of screws, one threaded into each of the arms, the heads of the screws protruding from the end closure member at the ends thereof. No supplemental locking means for the screws is provided.
It has been found during parachute deployment, especially in the case of the drag parachute, there is a tendency for the protruding heads of the screws of the connector link to be damaged and/or loosened by vibration by dragging on the runway, which can cause the parachute to be prematurely released and loose hardware dropped on the runway or deck to be ingested by the jet engines. Furthermore, damage to the screw heads rendered ease of separation difficult, which is one of the requirements of this type of connector. As a result, U.S. Navy policy requires the replacement of the connector links at least after every five deployments.